A Circle, Unbroken
by Antigone.Rose
Summary: Time doesn't exist. Clocks do, but that's another matter entirely. Rosalind spreads her arms wide and sees a girl and a cage and a man and a lighthouse and a thousand stories that unfold, unfolded, will unfold. Time doesn't exist. But Rosalind does...and so does her brother.


There is always a man, it seems. Always, a city. Always, a lighthouse. Infinite possibilities for variations, infinite choices to be made and always the lighthouse remains, the city remains, the man remains.

The man with two faces remains.

Rosalind disapproves of this whole endevour. Just as the man remains so does the ending and the girl with the secret and the sky filled with fire. Rosalind knows this because she knows time, knew time, will know time. Time is an ocean and she is the albatross skimming over the waves, everywhere and nowhere at once.

She watches the man run and she watches him die and she watches him live and she watches it all at once. Fleeting and infinite is the False Shepard, as is his Lamb. Time is an instant and time is eternal and Rosalind wonders if there is a better language than English for the thoughts that run through her head.

* * *

"Heads or tails?" She, he, we, I, us...there is no good way to describe herself and her brother. They are one and two, they are together and not, they are two sides of the same coin. Past, present, future...time matters little when they are one and the same. Rosalind turns to her brother who is not her brother.

He is herself and not. She looks at eyes she knows and a nose she has and knows he has a mind that she alone understands. They whispered through the walls all those years ago, but now the walls are shattering and so they may speak, scream, shout across the possibility space.

"Heads or tails?" They ask again. Booker Dewitt takes the coin.

122 times they have watched, watch, will watch him flip the coin. 122 times the coin has come up heads. That much does not change, will not change. Because he dies, died, will die. He fails, failed, will fail. The future has already happened, is happening, will happen.

Rosalind marches through time, through the secrets, through both sides of the coin. It shall end in tears, as it always does. Some things they may change, however, many things they may not.

Booker Dewitt will never row. Not row, not have rowed, will not row. This remains constant because some things do and this is one of the things that did, does, always will. The man in the boat will not row. Does not row. Will never row.

"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt." He chants to himself like a mantra.

Rosalind is glad she is turned away from him this time, every time. It would not do for him to see her smile.

* * *

Some things are variables, others are constants. Heads, says Rosalind. Tails, says Robert. It comes up heads, as always. She looks up, up at buildings that float and a city that drifts among the clouds. This is Colombia, her city. Roger looks down, down towards the world below. In a world that is not this one, his city lies beneath the waves. That is Rapture, his city. There, the coin comes up tails.

It matters little. He is here, was here, will be here, where Rapture is not. "Would you kindly..." Voices say, but Rosalind doesn't listen because that story is not hers, will not be hers. Nevertheless, she sees a man and she knows there is an impossible city and she suspects there is a lighthouse.

Man...city...lighthouse. It seems that these constants remain, no matter the story.

* * *

"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt." Guilt is not an emotion worth feeling. Few emotions are because emotions are both fleeting and eternal. Curiosity is her favorite, followed closely by superiority and then, maybe, happiness.

Rosalind sees a father snatch a baby from a father and pulls her brother after her. The child, lamb, seed of the prophet, looks at her with solemn eyes and Rosalind feels guilt even though guilt is useless. She looks at her brother and wipes it away.

The girl for the debt. Rosalind looks at Zachary Comstock and then at Booker Dewitt. She flips a coin. It comes up heads. It was always going to.

Rosalind and Robert sit together in Colombia, back when time passes, passed, will pass in a linear fashion. Rosalind looks out the window, onto her city that floats, and thinks of eternity.

"Do you believe in God?" Her brother who is not her brother asks one day. He need not ask because he knows the answer, but he asks anyway. Sometimes, hearing ones thoughts from another is a clarifying thing.

"I believe in many things." Says Rosalind. She presents Robert with a coin. "Heads or tails?"

Robert does not answer. Rosalind flips the coin anyway.

* * *

One day, Rosalind dies, died, will die and time ceases to exist. She is pulled from the ocean along with her brother and, gasping, she becomes infinite.

Lives, lived, will live. As a child, Rosalind looks in a mirror and sees herself go on forever. Dies, died, will die. As a woman, Rosalind looks in another universe and sees a version of herself that both herself and not. Present, past, future. As the universe itself, Rosalind looks into time and sees her own face looking back.

Time doesn't exist. Clocks do, but that's another matter entirely. Time doesn't exist. Rosalind spreads her arms wide and sees a girl and a cage and a man and a lighthouse and a thousand stories that unfold, unfolded, will unfold. Time doesn't exist. But Rosalind does...and so does her brother.

123...the coin comes up heads. Rosalind looks at the man who doesn't row and the girl who does. They are infinite, they are forever, they are fleeting, they are nearly gone.

Man...city...lighthouse. Always, the constants remain.

* * *

Rosalind and Robert stand at the top of a lighthouse. It doesn't matter which one because there is always a lighthouse...that does not change.

"Do you believe in God?" Robert asks. Time is not real, so he never asks, never stops asking all at once. Rosalind smiles at her brother who is not her brother because happiness is an emotion worth feeling, even after and before all this time.

"I believe in us, my brother." Says Rosalind. Before them, the city floats(_sinks_) and clocks chime out the hour. She fishes a coin from her pocket, examines one side and then the other, before flinging it into the sea.

"Heads or tails, my sister?" Robert says.

"Neither." Rosalind says succiently. "Make a wish, my brother."

* * *

_A/N: I finished playing Infinite last night and now I don't know what to do with my liiiife. That ending...gah. Anyway, I loved the Luteces. They're so interesting in the context of the story...a story which is, ultimately, entirely their doing. Anyway. It was interesting...so this thing came about. Review, if the fancy strikes. _

_Disclaimer: Nope. _


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